Mohist Thought

“Early Chinese Thought” Course Readings (R. Eno) MOHIST THOUGHT “Mohism” is the name given to the philosophical school founded by a man named Mozi 墨子 (Master Mo, his actual name was Mo Di 墨翟), who lived during the fifth century BCE Mozi was the first man to offer a strong intellectual challenge to Confucianism. His followers became a highly disciplined band of men committed to certain extreme doctrines of political and ethical action. They were very influential during the Warring States period, but the school died out during the decades following the Qin conquest of 221. We know very little about most non-Confucian Classical thinkers, and Mozi is no exception. Some sources tell us that he was a disenchanted Confucian from the state of Lu, whose early training in ritualism later made him an effective adversary to Confucian doctrines. Other texts say he was from the state of Sung and do not speak of any Confucian connection, but note instead that the surname “Mo,” which means “ink mark,” is a very rare one, and may refer not to Mo Di’s family but rather to the fact that he had been subjected to “tattooing,” a punishment often meted out to criminals in the Classical era. This account interprets “Mozi” as meaning “the tattooed master.” The notion that Mozi was a commoner who had fallen afoul of the law fits with the rhetoric of the text that he and his followers compiled: the Mozi, which is unstylish and even crude (this shows through even in translation). Moreover, the analogies, metaphors, and examples offered in Mozi’s book are frequently connected with the activities of the common soldier or of the members of the artisan class. At the least, we may say that it is likely that most of Mozi’s followers were commoners, perhaps principally the sons of peasants and artisans who had been drafted into the endless wars of the era. During the Warring States period, the Mohists were organized in tight-knit paramilitary bands. They were specially trained in what we may call the arts of defensive warfare. One of the major doctrines of Mohism was that offensive warfare was evil and the cause of most of the suffering of the time. Mohists were famous for matching their actions to their beliefs, and Mohist groups made careers of racing from one area of China to another, offering their services to rulers whose states were under attack. Rulers who accepted Mohists into their service found them skilled in engineering devices designed to repel attacks on walled cities and fortresses. 2 Mohism’s rejection of offensive warfare was one of a set of clearly defined and argued doctrines that distinguished this cult from all others. These doctrines rested upon the belief that the good was whatever produced the greatest well-being among the people. Mohists argued that this was, indeed, the standard that Heaven used when rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked, and they also claimed that the sage rulers of the distant past had used this criterion to rule effectively, rather than the ritual patterns of Confucianism. Mohist doctrines advocated thrift in government, the elimination of extraneous ritual and music, and the enforcement of a strict political hierarchy under the ruling Son of Heaven, whom, Mohists believed, was always selected by Heaven and in close touch with that ethereal being. Mohists were enthusiastic supporters of the belief in ghosts and spirits. They held that religious belief was essential to a well ordered society; the more cautious approach of the Confucians on the issue of the existence of the spirits they saw as socially subversive atheism. Like Confucianism, Mohism was a type of radical conservatism. When the Mohists searched the distant past for a model for the present, they discovered not Confucian precedents of ritual rule, but a meritocracy that raised to power people who resisted the lure of personal enrichment and showed the ability to treat the masses of common people with fairness and courage. Their philosophy reflects the spirit of the warriors whom the Confucian Mencius described as models for nurturing the vital energy, or qi 氣 (see the Glossary). Mohists were no respecters of high rank, but they were arduous in demanding discipline of themselves, fair treatment of others according to their deserts, and dedication to the restoration of political order under a single Son of Heaven. What Mohists shared with Confucianism and other conservative philosophies was a faith in the bedrock foundation of Zhou political culture: social order is dependent upon the personal virtue of the ruler. But the most dramatic and famous doctrine of Mohism, one which the Mohists viewed as the essence of their beliefs, was their doctrine of universal love. What the Mohists meant by “universal love” was this: an attitude towards all others that viewed each of them as of equal value with oneself, with no distinctions of affection made among any. Under such an imperative, an individual was charged to have no special regard for parents, spouse, or children, nor for his or her own person. The demand was to cultivate an attitude where the needs of any stranger would have as strong an impact upon you as the needs of your family or friends, 3 and your response to that stranger would be as immediate, generous, and unreserved as it would be to your intimates. (The Mohists used the term “love” to denote a responsive sensitivity towards others, rather than in the sense of romantic love.) The following anecdote, recorded about 250 BCE, conveys the radical emotive commitment that Mohists were viewed as making in taking the public good rather than personal feelings to be so absolute an imperative: There was in the state of Qin a Mohist master named Fu Tun whose son murdered a man. King Hui of Qin (r. 337-311) said, “You are old, Sir, and you have no other sons. I have already ordered the officers not to execute your son. I pray that you will permit me to spare your boy.” “The laws of the Mohists,” replied Fu Tun, “say: ‘Murderers shall die and those who inflict injury shall be maimed.’ This law prevents people from committing murder and assault. Preventing the commission of murder and assault is an act of great righteousness. Your Majesty may wish to grant me the gift of sparing the life of my son, but I cannot do other than carry out the laws of the Mohists.” And so he refused the King’s offer and his son was executed. A son is one’s dearest personal possession. To bear to have what is dearest to one killed in order to implement righteousness -- Fu Tun may indeed be termed one who acted in the interests of all. Needless to say, non-Mohists found such radical ethical demands outlandishly incompatible with normal human psychology. But for Mohists, to value all other people as highly as one spontaneously values those within one’s private sphere was the pivot of their entire philosophy. They allowed no emotional issues to cloud their closely reasoned position that there was neither a logical nor an ethical basis for regarding some people differently from others. Unlike almost all other types of early Chinese philosophy, Mohism exhibits a deep commitment to the power of Reason. In fact, Mohists were in some ways the only true rationalistic thinkers in Classical China (some would say in the entire history of traditional China). As you will be able to see very easily in the translation of “Universal Love” below, the Mohists argued in a rational fashion, always attempting to justify their claims through careful arguments. What is more, they clearly believed that the power of rational “proof” was so overwhelming to the intellect that it was almost inconceivable that people could fail to accept and act upon the doctrine of universal love once it was explained to them. 4 It is possible to argue that the greatest significance of Mohism lay not in its various explicit doctrines, but rather in the fact that through the Mohists, Chinese culture was presented with the option of making Reason the pivot of intellectual inquiry, as it was in Greece, Rome, and their later cultural descendants. Many of the fundamental differences between the cultures of China and of Western Europe are reflected in the fact that Mohism did not find an enduring audience in China, whereas the generally rationalistic approaches of Plato and Aristotle became fundamental to Western traditions. Reason vs. authority in the Mohist School Although the reputation of the Mohist School is dominated by the doctrine of universal love, the school actually elaborated an impressive number of clearly articulated and distinctive positions. These are all presented in a very straightforward and accessible style in the Mozi, but it is not always easy to see how the individual doctrines fit together. The basic barrier to their overall coherence, is that Mohists tried to combine two approaches to the quest for certain knowledge that do not easily complement one another: a reliance on the individual’s power of reason to discover certain truths on his own, and a demand that people equally rely on knowledge from authority, specifically the teachings that are reported to reflect the ethical values of the ancient sages and of Heaven itself. On the side of reason, the Mohists, apart from their relentlessly logical style of argumentation, formulated a set of explicit criteria for justification (the brief discussion of these in the Mozi appears among the briefer text passages translated in this coursepack). The Mozi tells us that for an argument to be accepted, it must pass three tests: (1) it must conform to the evidence of past pronouncements by sages (there must be some basis in preserved texts); (2) it must conform to “the eyes and ears of the people” (it should represent what ordinary commonsense or experience confirms); (3) acceptance must have a good social effect.

Load more